Israeli army veterans set up company after friend was shot by friendly fire

Jerusalem-based Zore is one of a group of companies trying to make guns safer, and it has a personal reason to do so.

The company, led by CEO Yonatan Zimmerman, was founded by a group of Israeli army veterans, who decided to tackle accidental deaths caused by the misuse of firearms after an army friend of theirs was shot by friendly fire.

The team has developed a gun lock, Zore X, that combines a gun’s original mechanism with technology to create a storage solution that is safe but still allows easy access for use when needed.

The product is a smart cartridge-shaped locking device for semiautomatic guns that prevents unauthorized use and alerts gun owners by phone if an attempt has been made to move or unlock their firearm. ZORE X’s design allows users to swiftly unlock and eject the cartridge, offering the quickest way for guns to go from locked to loaded.

The smart cartridge-shaped device can lock the majority of semiautomatic guns by just pressing a button. It can be unlocked manually, using a code that can be input without looking at the lock, by simply feeling the number of clicks between each turn of the lock. Once unlocked, charging the gun will eject ZORE X and chamber a fresh round immediately. ZORE also offers gun owners the option of unlocking the device via their smartphone. However, the device can only be locked manually by pressing the lock button and is not dependent on the phone in any way, the company said.

Zore is not alone in developing new ideas to make guns safer. In a July 14 report, CB Insights, a New York based data company identified 10 companies, including Zore, that are leading the push to better and safer guns, as gun violence in America and other recent tragedies are spurring the public and private sector to look for solutions to this often fatal problem.

Among the companies developing smart guns, CB Insights mentions California-based Yardarm Technologies Inc., which is developing a wireless firearm technology for law enforcement, private security and the military, with a sensor allowing organizations to be more aware of what is happening with the firearms of their officers. Columbus, Georgia’s SGTi is developing kits that fit personal firearms with a fingerprint sensor, so only an authorized user can fire the weapon. And Detroit-based Identilock has developed a biometric fingerprint scanner that fits over the trigger of the gun to prevent misuse.

Zore has raised $416,516 to date in purchases of its gun lock from an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign it launched in June.

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